Infanta Maria of Portugal sponsored the first church around 1568. The current building began in 1681 after earlier structures collapsed, and João Antunes, a major Portuguese Baroque architect, worked on it from 1682 until his death in 1712. King John V then shifted resources to the Convent of Mafra, and the phrase obras de Santa Engrácia came to mean an endless project.
It is a centralized Greek cross in Baroque style, with undulating facades that recall Borromini and polychrome marble floors and walls. A high central dome was added and the church was reinaugurated in 1966. The corner towers' pinnacles were never completed.
In 1916 it became the National Pantheon. It holds the tombs of presidents, writers and a fado singer, and cenotaphs to Luís de Camões and Vasco da Gama. The article gives no visiting details.
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